


The Barest Ounce of Kindness

by anna-phora (xanaphorax)



Series: Umbrella Academy One Shots & Imagines [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Brotherly Love, Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Bonding, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Heart-to-Heart, Klaus Hargreeves-centric, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Other, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, klaus hargreeves being the best brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26169178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xanaphorax/pseuds/anna-phora
Summary: Klaus has been asking you to do small favors for him for months now. But brushing his hair? That’s weirder than the rest.
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves & Original Character(s), Klaus Hargreeves & Reader, Klaus Hargreeves/Reader
Series: Umbrella Academy One Shots & Imagines [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1900375
Kudos: 45





	The Barest Ounce of Kindness

Privacy did not exist within the walls of the Umbrella Academy  
Hidden cameras--which were widely known to exist despite their undisclosed locations--were placed in every room for monitoring. Most of your activities took place under the watchful eye of your father or Pogo. Mom breezed in and out of each room gathering clothes, making beds, shepherding you to wherever you needed to be next. But the worse culprits were your siblings. Luther was bearable, he was too busy shadowing the old man or sneaking around with Allison. When she wasn't with Luther, Allison had taken to snooping through everyone's things. Vanya perpetually hovered outside of each door which was at least a little better than Diego who was constantly hiding around corners to practice for "stealth missions." But the worst culprit by far was Klaus.  
He was currently standing in your doorway wearing nothing but a fluffy lavender towel and with a baby blue hand towel piled on top of his head.  
"Will you brush my hair please?" Klaus asked, lip already jutting out in a pout.  
You shut your book with a small thmp, because no matter how this conversation played out, Klaus was not going to leave your room until you gave him your full attention. That meant shoulders squared towards him, full eye contact, no finger saving your page, book placed in front of you on the desk.  
"What?" This was an odd request even from Klaus. Klaus who once asked you to tie his wrists together behind his back to see what the tightest he could get out of was. Klaus who once asked you to give him a tramp stamp of Pac-Man with a tattoo gun he procured from who knows where. Klaus who once asked you to watch him as he tripped because he swore he could levitate.  
The thing that made this request odd was that it seemed rather...intimate.  
Intimacy did not exist within the walls of the Umbrella Academy either.  
Klaus sighed dramatically, brushing past you to flop down onto your bed. "I've just had the shittiest day, and it would mean the world if just one human being showed me the barest ounce of kindness."  
You turned in your desk chair, resting your arms along the back so you could stare at him. He, in turn, was gazing up at the ceiling and the constellations you'd painted up there over the years, expanding your universe beyond the walls of the academy.  
"What happened?"  
Despite the complete and total lack of privacy, you felt like you never knew what went on with your siblings. Sure, there were the missions and your group trainings and meals and having them barge in on your personal space--but the rest of the time they seemed to slip through the cracks in the floors and disappear into the shadows of the halls. Their presence was felt. Their lives were not.  
"Oh just one thing after another, I won't bore you with the details," Klaus dismissed, rolling over to prop his chin up in his hands and look at you expectantly.  
"You just want me to...brush your hair." The request would make more sense if there was some underlying catch. But he just nodded. So you remained still.  
Klaus dropped his arms, giving you a more impatient look. "Come on, Cloe, you owe me one."  
"What? Since when?" you protested. You liked to keep your ledgers balanced in the house, and you were fairly certain you owed nothing to no one. In fact, over the past three months, Klaus had put himself more and more in the red with his strange requests.  
“Ok, fine, I’ll owe you one,” Klaus relented.  
You paused, working your jaw, and Klaus squealed. Because he knew what that meant.  
It meant he won. Like always. And like always, you wouldn't even bother mentally logging this down as a favor owed.  
Klaus clambered up to sit cross legged on your bed, the towel just saving you from having to burn your sheets. And your eyes.  
"Do you have a brush?" you asked, raising your eyebrows at Klaus who in turn mirrored the look and gestured at himself in his towel.  
You heaved a sigh, dragging yourself up out of the chair and heading over to your dresser where the Umbrella Academy Personal Care Set lay neatly on top. Your father had seen fit to issue each of you a boar bristle brush, wide tooth comb, and thin pocket comb regardless of your specific hair needs. It had been several arguments and eventually an appeal to Mom just to get different shampoos for the seven of you. Back when it was seven.  
You brushed aside the aching, hollowing sadness that grew whenever you thought of the number six and turned to Klaus, hair brush in hand. He had taken the blue towel off his head, leaving his hair sticking out in a multitude of directions. You snorted out a laugh, climbing up into the bed behind him.  
"Start at the ends and work your way up," Klaus instructed, wiggling his shoulders in anticipation as you brought the brush to his hair.  
"I know how to brush hair, Klaus," you deadpanned back. Klaus looked over his shoulder, eyes running over your head, assessing. He raised his eyebrows in a look that read quite clearly If you say so. You smacked him against the head, and he laughed turning back forward.  
"You need to cut your hair," you said, smoothing the brush through the ends of his shoulder length hair. "It looks raggedy."  
"I like it," Klaus dismissed, his voice dreamy already.  
"You look like a stray dog." In response Klaus started panting loudly.  
You smacked his arm, and since he remained face forward, you allowed yourself a smile as well. "You're so weird."  
"Good, it means I'm not boring," Klaus shrugged. You rolled your eyes, but the smile remained as you worked your way further up his hair. It was rather soothing, and despite the slightly uncomfortable twist in your stomach, it felt...nice to share this moment with Klaus. And because it felt nice, it also felt wrong. A bit like a betrayal.  
"This is weird, you know that right? It's weird to brush another person's hair." you said, cringing at yourself slightly for using the word weird again. Because this kind of weird and Klaus' kind of weird were very different. Although, Klaus had brought on this kind of weird, so maybe he was both?  
"You used to love it when Mom brushed your hair," Klaus rebutted.  
You shook your head. "That's different, it was Mom."  
"You're greatly overthinking this," Klaus said, turning to give you a significant look. "I wanted to be pampered, and you weren't doing anything."  
"I was reading actually."  
"A Brief History of Time, yes, how invigorating."  
"Actually--"  
"Nope."  
"It is!"  
"No. It's not. You need to get out more if you think that's exciting."  
"Don't you want to know how the universe works?”  
“Nope. I know how it works." That statement had been slightly unexpected. You knew Klaus was more astute than he led the rest of the house to believe. You'd picked that up during your past few months of doing favors for Klaus. But the way he said that he knew how the world works...it sounded so matter of fact. Like he really did know the ins and outs of the universe. Like he had decades of knowledge whispered to him from the great beyond.  
"Everything...” Klaus paused as he turned to look at you over his shoulder.You withdrew the hairbrush from his hair, looking at him expectantly. “Is fucked.”  
You huffed, pushing Klaus forward and he laughed at you. You should have known not to expect anything too profound to leave Klaus. Still, you had hoped that he held some of the answers you'd been looking for.  
"Come on, Cloe. You know I'm right," he protested, drawing himself up again and reigning his laughter in. "What else would explain why our daddy dearest is a millionaire and sweet little Vanya has no powers? Good things happen to bad people. Bad things happen to good people. Bad things also happen to bad people, but they're never quite as bad as the bad things that happen to good people. See? It's all fucked."  
He was right.  
Because if he was wrong, Ben wouldn't be dead.  
You hung your head, shaking it a little, and Klaus took this for the concession that it was. He must have picked up a few things about you over the past few months as well.  
"Cheer up, if it's already fucked it means that we can't fuck it up worse."  
"What's even the point though? If it's all fucked?" you asked. "What's the point of anything we do here if good people still die?"  
"The point is finding ways to make it bearable, I guess," Klaus shrugged. "I suggest pot as a starting point."  
You lifted the corner of your mouth in a vague smile, and Klaus turned around completely to face you. You held your hand out as a small shield to block any sights you did not want to see.  
"Ben died making the world more bearable," Klaus said, his voice smaller than you'd ever heard it. As if he didn't want anyone else to overhear him being sincere.  
You nodded, that hollow sadness echoing throughout your body. These waves came less than they had three months ago, and you no longer found yourself unable to hold in the tears, but it hadn't stopped hurting. You wished it would. You knew that there was an answer sitting two feet in front of you that could help. And yet, you'd never been able to bring yourself to ask it. It hadn't seemed fair to him, and you weren't sure you wanted to know. But here he was, and if there was any time, it was now.  
"Klaus," you started. "Can you...is Ben...is he still around?"  
Klaus looked out into the room, his eyes focused on the mid distance and you watched as his pensive look slowly pulled into a frown.  
"No," he said, offering a sad half smile. "Our Benny Bopper has gone towards the light. Eternal peace and all that."  
You bent your head, letting go of the breath of hope you'd been holding. "I don't know whether I'm happy for him or mad at him."  
Klaus reached out, placing a hand on your shoulder. "I'd go for mad," he said. "He always was an annoying little shit."  
You laughed. At least you tried to laugh. It broke about halfway through.  
"I know you two were close," Klaus' voice returned to the unusual sincere tone, rubbing a thumb lightly against your shoulder as a means of comfort. You nodded. Ben had been your closest friend in the entire house. He’d come to your room and the two of you would spend your spare time discussing the intricacies of life and dreaming of the day you could run off to Princeton or John Hopkins or any other far away college with a wonderful library.  
You had been kindred spirits.  
And now he was just a spirit.  
"Yeah," you breathed, looking out in the room, unable to meet Klaus' eyes. "And you guys were partners."  
"Eh, he always liked you more," Klaus dismissed with a wave of his hand. "Besides, you make a pretty good consolation prize."  
"Thanks," you answered flatly. A small silence grew between the two of you as you attempted to reel yourself back in to this moment, sitting on the bed with Klaus. Away from the memories and the wishes.  
You swallowed down the pressure that had built up in your chest and throat and turned back to Klaus. "Do you want me to finish brushing?"  
"I thought you'd never ask," Klaus said, turning back around, and you snorted vaguely aware of how your heart felt a little bit lighter than when he first walked into the room. It always seemed to feel this way after doing Klaus a favor. Maybe he was a pretty good consolation prize too.


End file.
